Land reforms by country - Misplaced Pages

Agrarian reform and land reform have been a recurring theme of enormous consequence in world history. They are often highly political and have been achieved (or attempted) in many countries.

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236-516: Getúlio Vargas , who rose to presidency in Brazil following the Brazilian Revolution of 1930 , promised a land reform but reneged on his promise. A first attempt to make a nationwide reform was set up in the government of José Sarney (1985–1990) as a result of the strong popular movement that had contributed to the fall of the military government . According to the 1988 Constitution of Brazil ,

472-606: A counterterrorism effort against the Shining Path during the Internal conflict in Peru roughly 1988–1995, led by Hernando de Soto and the Institute for Liberty and Democracy during the early years of the government of Alberto Fujimori , before the latter's auto-coup . The system of land tenure from Colonial Venezuela was maintained into Venezuelan independence with the creation of

708-507: A general strike in 1917 , and several failed tenente revolts of discontent junior military officers throughout the 1920s. World coffee prices crashed in October 1929 and, with them, the Brazilian economy. In the midst of unrest and the collapse of the economy, president Luís broke the coffee and milk agreement, declaring Júlio Prestes (a politician from São Paulo) his successor instead of

944-463: A paulista to succeed him led to the formation of the Liberal Alliance ( Aliança Liberal ) (consisting of Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul and Paraíba ), forming an opposition to Prestes and nominating Vargas, who led a broad coalition of middle-class industrialists, planters from outside São Paulo, and the tenentes for the presidency. Support for Vargas was especially strong in the states of

1180-459: A popular revolution forced out dictator Jorge Ubico . The largest part of the reform was the law officially called Decree 900 , which redistributed all uncultivated land from landholdings that were larger than 673 acres (272 ha). If the estates were between 672 acres (272 ha) and 224 acres (91 ha) in size, uncultivated land was expropriated only if less than two-thirds of it was in use. The law benefited 500,000 people, or one-sixth of

1416-518: A promotor , or a public prosecutor , in Porto Alegre. Vargas's first case dealt with rape, one which he settled privately by convincing both parties to marry. Vargas's vocation as a promoter did not last long, for he married fifteen-year-old Darci Lima Sarmanho , a woman thirteen years younger than himself, in March 1911. They would remain together for forty-three years until Vargas died in 1954. She

1652-497: A yellow fever outbreak in Rio de Janeiro . At the school, Vargas was the subject of hostility by his fellow cadets, taunted with the nickname xuxu , or chayote , for his height (1.57 m or 5 ft 2 in) and "round shape". Vargas and his elder brothers were forced out of the school after Vargas's brother Viriato, with the aid of his brother Protasio, shot fellow cadet Carlos Prado to death. Like his father, Vargas embarked on

1888-409: A bill authorizing the government redistribution of land among the nation's mostly indigenous poor. Attempts at land reform began under the government of Jorge Alessandri in 1960, were accelerated during the government of Eduardo Frei Montalva (1964–1970), and reached its climax during the 1970-1973 presidency of Salvador Allende . Farms of more than 198 acres (80 ha) were expropriated. After

2124-465: A component of his later social reform. Between 1913 and 1917, Vargas's political career ceased, however. While the second term of president Borges de Medeiros was underway, Vargas fell out with the state president at the end of 1912. Commenting on his resignation speech to the Assembly, historian Richard Bourne states, "Get[ú]lio's departure was marked with finesse: he made just enough noise to indicate to

2360-753: A concerted effort to gain American support; when the US declared war on Germany and Japan in 1941, Ubico followed suit, and acting on American instructions arrested all people of German descent in Guatemala. He permitted the US to establish an air base in Guatemala, with the stated aim of protecting the Panama Canal . Like his predecessors, he made large concessions to the United Fruit Company, granting it 200,000 hectares (490,000 acres) hectares of public land in exchange for

2596-513: A day, to prevent other workers from demanding higher wages. The company also virtually owned Puerto Barrios , Guatemala's only port to the Atlantic Ocean, allowing the company to make profits from the flow of goods through the port. By 1950, the company's annual profits were US$ 65 million, twice the revenue of the Guatemalan government. Due to its long association with Ubico's government,

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2832-526: A decree which would declare martial law for mutinies. Vargas told them to redraft it, and Aranha told Vargas's secretary, "This Getúlio has a passive resistance that is enervating." While Vargas increased his support with senior army officers, bloody riots broke out in Recife in October 1931. In February 1932, the Democratic Party of São Paulo joined forces with Republicans in a united front against Vargas. There

3068-413: A dictator between 1931 and 1944, this process was intensified, with the institution of harsh labor regulations and a police state . In June 1944, a popular pro-democracy movement led by university students and labor organizations forced Ubico to resign. He appointed a three-person military junta to take his place, led by Federico Ponce Vaides . This junta continued Ubico's oppressive policies, until it

3304-482: A firm known to be hawkish, which produced a 235-page report that was highly critical of the Guatemalan government. Historians have stated that the report was full of "exaggerations, scurrilous descriptions and bizarre historical theories". The report nonetheless had a significant impact on the Congressmen that it was sent to. Overall, the company spent over a half-million dollars to influence both lawmakers and members of

3540-471: A flood of exiled El Salvadorian revolutionaries moving to Guatemala. This coincided with a series of protests at the university in Guatemala City . Ubico responded by suspending the constitution on 22 June 1944. The protesters, who by this point included many middle-class members in addition to students and workers, called for a general strike, and presented an ultimatum to Ubico the next day, demanding

3776-445: A general under Ubico, and who had the support of the hardline opponents of the revolution. During his campaign, Árbenz promised to continue and expand the reforms begun under Arévalo. The election was held on 15 November 1950, and Árbenz won more than 60% of the vote, in elections that were free and fair with the exception of the disenfranchisement of illiterate female voters. Árbenz was inaugurated as president on 15 March 1951. Árbenz

4012-461: A hybrid between hierarchical values and Catholic conservatism, though it was never considered "fascist indoctrination". Major reforms also took hold in higher education , with Vargas's government creating conditions favorable to universities. Vargas's reforms were limited, however. Though his laws were in existence, the enforcement of those laws was lackluster. In 1948, Anísio Teixeira , considered to be Brazil's greatest education reformer, reviewed

4248-474: A law allowing land-owners complete immunity from prosecution for any action they took to defend their property, an action described by historians as legalizing murder. He greatly strengthened the police force, turning it into one of the most efficient and ruthless in Latin America. The police were given greater authority to shoot and imprison people suspected of breaking the labor laws. The result of these laws

4484-414: A law school graduate and became Vargas's favorite. However, Vargas was an unfaithful husband, often participating in sexual dalliances. He took a mistress in 1937 and become devoted to her; this was later confirmed by his diaries published fifty years after his death in 2004. It is believed the mistress was Aimée de Soto-Maior, later Aimée de Heeren , recognized by the international fashion press as one of

4720-533: A long way after its 35-year dictatorship, but the unequal distribution of land is still a problem for the nation since their economy is one that is dependent on its agriculture. A census in 2008 revealed that “80 percent of agriculture land is held by just 1.6 percent of landowners, with the 600 largest properties occupying 40 percent of the total productive land. More than 300,000 family farmers have no land at all.” Paraguayans have formed unions such as National Federation of Campesinos (FNC) who has fought for justice on

4956-428: A military career. He joined the army in 1898 despite his father's protests, enlisting as a private in the 6th Infantry Battalion for one year. In 1899, he was promoted to sergeant . He also joined the military college at Rio Pardo and studied there until 1901. However, Vargas and twenty other cadets were forced to leave when they joined in a protest over lack of water. Only some time later did an amnesty allow him and

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5192-412: A military officer could defeat Arana. On 16 July 1949, Arana delivered an ultimatum to Arévalo, demanding the expulsion of all of Árbenz's supporters from the cabinet and the military; he threatened a coup if his demands were not met. Arévalo informed Árbenz and other progressive leaders of the ultimatum, who all agreed that Arana should be exiled. Two days later, Arévalo and Arana had another meeting; on

5428-435: A naval blockade around the country. It also involved dropping leaflets by airplane through the country, and carrying out a radio broadcast entitled "The Voice of Liberation" which announced that Guatemalan exiles led by Castillo Armas were shortly about to liberate the country. The military force led by Castillo Armas attempted to make forays towards the towns of Zacapa and Puerto Barrios; however, these were beaten back by

5664-470: A people truly capable of democratic government." Vargas graduated in 1907. Entering politics in the Republican Party of Rio Grande do Sul , Vargas had two options after graduating from law school: He could either accept an instructorship position in the school he had just graduated from, or he could become the state attorney. Vargas chose the latter, a position that was secured by his father, and he

5900-513: A person from Minas Gerais, violating the four-decade old oligarchy. Vargas publicly announced his views on the Old Republic in a proclamation on 4 October 1930: The people are starving and oppressed. Representative government has been destroyed by the oligarchies and the professional politicians. Brutality, violence and squandering of public funds is seen at every level of Brazilian national politics.… The ensuing political crisis of Luís choosing

6136-403: A potential coup would transpire, which was not the case. However, Vargas felt depressed during the crisis, with both Alzira and Monteiro noting he was passing through an abrupt mental stage at the beginning of the revolt. Although federal forces defeated the revolutionaries, a new constitution would be enacted two years later in the aftermath. Vargas, meanwhile, enforced soft peace terms, ordered

6372-752: A powerful local family, Vargas had a short stint in the Brazilian Army before entering law school. He began his political career as district attorney, soon becoming a state deputy prior to a brief departure from politics. After returning to the state Legislative Assembly , Vargas led troops during Rio Grande do Sul's 1923 civil war. He entered national politics as a member of the Chamber of Deputies . Afterward, Vargas served as Minister of Finance under president Washington Luís before resigning to head Rio Grande do Sul as state president, during which he had an active tenure and introduced many policies. In 1930, after losing

6608-524: A powerful political force in Bolivia during all subsequent governments. By 1970, 45% of peasant families had received title to land. Land reform projects continued in the 1970s and 1980s. A 1996 agrarian reform law increased protection for smallholdings and indigenous territories, but also protected absentee landholders who pay taxes from expropriation. Reforms were continued at 2006, with the Bolivian senate passing

6844-727: A promise to build a port. He later released the company from this obligation as well, citing the economic crisis. Since its entry into Guatemala, the UFC had expanded its land-holdings by displacing the peasantry and converting their farmland into banana plantations. This process accelerated under Ubico, whose government did nothing to stop it. The onset of World War II increased economic unrest in Guatemala. Ubico responded by cracking down more fiercely on any form of protest or dissent. In 1944, popular revolt broke out in neighboring El Salvador , which briefly toppled dictator Maximiliano Hernández Martínez . However, he quickly returned to power, leading to

7080-473: A quarter of prime land was in disputed ownership and half of the productive land was in the hands of 200,000 absentee landlords The large land owners were able to retain the best land with the best access to fresh water and irrigation facilities. In contrast, not only were the new peasant land holdings too small to produce an income but the peasants also lacked both quality irrigation system and sustained government support to enable them to develop their land to make

7316-465: A reasonable living. Set against the economic boom from oil revenue it became apparent that the Land Reforms did not make life better for the rural population: according to Amid, "..only a small group of rural people experienced increasing improvements in their welfare and poverty remained the lot of the majority". Moghadam argues that the structural changes to Iran, including the land reforms, initiated by

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7552-425: A renewed concentration of land and to the displacement of small landowners. In the early 21st century, tentative government plans to use the land legally expropriated from drug lords and/or the properties given back by demobilized paramilitary groups have not caused much practical improvement yet. Land reform was among the chief planks of the revolutionary platform of 1959. Almost all large holdings were seized by

7788-503: A reputation for being a highly efficient government bureaucracy, and the United States government, Árbenz's biggest detractor, did not have anything negative to say about it. The loans had a high repayment rate, and of the $ 3,371,185 handed out between March and November 1953, $ 3,049,092 had been repaid by June 1954. The law also included provisions for nationalization of roads that passed through redistributed land, which greatly increased

8024-425: A rise in unemployment, leading to unrest among workers and labourers. Fearing the possibility of a revolution, the landed elite lent their support to Jorge Ubico y Castañeda , who had built a reputation for ruthlessness and efficiency as a provincial governor. Ubico won the election that followed in 1931, in which he was the only candidate. Ubico had made statements supporting the labor movement when campaigning for

8260-512: A series of fraternity -like boarding houses, in one of which he made connections with future president and collaborator Eurico Gaspar Dutra . Vargas also spoke to visiting president Afonso Pena as a student representative in August 1906, saying, "We are today simply spectators of the present, but we will be judges of the future… Democracy is the common aspiration of civili[z]ed peoples as to their political system, but only with education can we have

8496-483: A shipment of weapons on a vessel owned by the United Fruit Company, and the operation was paid for by Rafael Trujillo and Marcos Pérez Jiménez , the right-wing anti-communist dictators of the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, respectively. The operation was to be led by Carlos Castillo Armas. However, the US state department discovered the conspiracy, and secretary of state Dean Acheson persuaded Truman to abort

8732-419: A significant shift in the fortunes of labor unions. The protests of 1944 strengthened the labor movement to the point where Ponce Vaides stopped enforcing the repressive vagrancy law, which was abolished in the 1945 constitution. On 1 May 1945, Arévalo made a speech celebrating organized labor, to a tremendously positive reception. The freedom of press guaranteed in the new constitution also drew much attention to

8968-486: A significant source of income for the government. As a result, the state supported the coffee growers by passing legislation that took land away from the Indian population, as well as relaxing labor laws so that bonded labor could be used on the plantations. The US-based United Fruit Company (UFC) was one of many foreign companies that acquired large tracts of both state land and indigenous land. Manuel Estrada Cabrera , who

9204-509: A telephone station. Revolutionaries quickly took control of the Northeast , and a large military confrontation in São Paulo seemed imminent. This, however, never happened, as Luís resigned on 24 October 1930, at the urging of both the military and Cardinal Dom Sebastião Leme . A short-lived junta of Brazil's military leaders took charge of the government. Revolutionary leaders, surprised at

9440-542: A uniform and wide-brimmed pampa hat, with 3,000 soldiers in the city in preparation of his arrival. The junta withdrew from power and installed Vargas as "interim president" on 3 November 1930. Vargas's provisional presidency began on 3 November 1930, when he assumed "unlimited power" from the provisional government in the aftermath of the Revolution of 1930, and gave a speech detailing a 17-point program. He imprisoned his prominent political opponents, and instead of taking

9676-427: A union that took a strongly anti-communist stance. Despite the powerful opposition, by 1947 the labor unions had managed to organize enough support to force the congress to pass a new labor code. This law was revolutionary in many ways; it forbade discrimination in salary levels on the basis of "age, race, sex, nationality, religious beliefs, or political affiliation". It created a set of health and safety standards in

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9912-502: A university in Argentina, where he earned a doctorate in the philosophy of education. He returned to Guatemala in 1934, and sought a position in the Ministry of Education. However, he was denied the position he wished for, and felt uncomfortable under the dictatorship of Ubico. He left the country and held a faculty position in Argentina until 1944, when he returned to Guatemala. In July 1944

10148-541: A viable farm of their own. Árbenz was also motivated to pass the bill because he needed to generate capital for his public infrastructure projects within the country. At the behest of the United States, the World Bank had refused to grant Guatemala a loan in 1951, which made the shortage of capital more acute. The official title of the agrarian reform bill was Decree 900 . It expropriated all uncultivated land from landholdings that were larger than 673 acres (272 ha). If

10384-420: A widely successful literacy campaign and a largely free election process, although illiterate women were not given the vote and communist parties were banned. Following the end of Arévalo's presidency in 1951, Jacobo Árbenz was elected to the presidency in a landslide. The progressive military leader of 1944 continued Arévalo's reforms, and began an ambitious land-reform program, known as Decree 900 . Under it,

10620-500: Is disorganized and congested, and only three institutions to train elementary-level teachers. Only one of them has adequate facilities. In spite of the strangulation and humiliation, there are still noble examples of teachers' devotion and persistence. The adjustment from the Old Republic to a new regime was painful despite Vargas's reforms. After a rebellion broke out in Recife in May 1931, Aranha and General Leite de Castro presented Vargas with

10856-465: The Renovación Nacional , the teachers' party, had been formed, and Arévalo was named its candidate. In an unexpected surge of support, his candidacy was endorsed by many of the leading organizations among the protesters, including the student federation. His lack of connection to the dictatorship and his academic background both worked in his favor among the students and teachers. At the same time,

11092-904: The 1968 coup by left-wing colonel Juan Velasco Alvarado . The military dictatorship under General Velasco (1968–75) launched a large-scale agrarian reform movement that attempted to redistribute land, hoping to break Peru's traditionally inequitable pattern of land holding and the hold of traditional oligarchy. The model used by Velasco to bring about change was the associative enterprise, in which former salaried rural workers and independent peasant families would become members of different kinds of cooperatives. About 22 million acres were redistributed, more land than in any reform program outside of Cuba. Unfortunately, productivity suffered as peasants with no management experience took control. The military government continued to spend huge amounts of money to transform Peru's agriculture to socialized ownership and management. These state expenditures are to blame for

11328-487: The 1973 coup the process was halted by the military junta and – up to a point – reversed. Alfonso López Pumarejo (1934–1938) passed Law 200 of 1936, which allowed for the expropriation of private properties, in order to promote "social interest". Later attempts declined, until the National Front presidencies of Alberto Lleras Camargo (1958–1962) and Carlos Lleras Restrepo (1966–1970), which respectively created

11564-569: The Allies after being sandwiched between Nazi Germany and the United States. Though there was notable opposition to his government, the major revolts – the 1932 Constitutionalist Revolution in his provisional government, the Communist uprising of 1935 in his constitutional presidency, and the Brazilian Integralist Action 's putsch in his dictatorship – were all successfully suppressed;

11800-456: The Ba'th Party , led by Saddam Hussein began instituting a wide series of sweeping land reforms. The intent of the reforms was to remove control of land owned by the traditional rural elites and redistribute it to peasant families. Modeled after the 1958 land reforms, much of the state land was rented out, though often to people who originally owned the large swathes of land. The key to this new reform

12036-514: The Bank of Brazil had once more been granted sole permission to exchange currency, a measure that had originally been put in place by president Luís's government yet repealed by Vargas's provisional government. Brazil had had a close cooperation between the Church and state by the time Vargas assumed power. The collaboration began mostly in the 1920s under the administration of Artur Bernardes. Vargas now made

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12272-567: The Bolivian national revolution in 1952. Then, the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement government abolished forced peasantry labor and established a program of expropriation and distribution of the rural property of the traditional landlords to the indigenous peasants. A unique feature of the reform in Bolivia was the organization of peasants into syndicates . Peasants were not only granted land but their militias also were given large supplies of arms. The peasants remained

12508-527: The Colombian Institute for Agrarian Reform (INCORA) and further developed land entitlement. In 1968 and 1969 alone, the INCORA issued more than 60,000 land titles to farmers and workers. Despite this, the process was then halted and the situation began to reverse itself, as the subsequent violent actions of drug lords , paramilitaries , guerrillas and opportunistic large landowners severely contributed to

12744-546: The Iraqi Communist Party led to the seizing of much of the land by the Iraqi Republic . Landholdings were capped at 600 acres (240 hectares) in arable areas and 1,200 acres (490 hectares) in areas that had rainfall. The concentrated landholdings by the state were then redistributed among the populace, in amounts of 20 acres (8.1 hectares) in irrigated land, with 40 acres (16 hectares) in land with rainfall. In 1970,

12980-538: The National Congress . Vargas turned his command over to his cousin Deoclecio Dorneles Motta, immediately departed for Rio de Janeiro, and now held a far more important task — restoring the power of Rio Grande do Sul in federal politics. In May 1923, Vargas became a national deputy, becoming Medeiros's "man of confidence" during a troubling period. His objective was to diminish federal intervention in

13216-522: The National Institute for Agrarian Reform (INRA), which dealt with all areas of agricultural policy. A ceiling of 166 acres (67 hectares) was established, and tenants were given ownership rights, though these rights are constrained by government production quotas and a prohibition of real estate transactions. Land reform occurred during the " Ten Years of Spring " (1944–1954) under the governments of Juan José Arévalo and Jacobo Árbenz , after

13452-458: The Spanish invasion in 1524 , the population of Guatemala was almost exclusively Maya . The Spanish conquest created a system of wealthy European landowners overseeing a labor force composed of slaves and bonded laborers . However, the community lands of the indigenous population remained in their control until the late 19th century. At this point, rising global demand for coffee made its export

13688-476: The Triple Alliance War the nation underwent a 35-year dictatorship of President Alfredo Stroessner in the years of 1954 to 1989. Stroessner was known to take away many campesino 's land in order to give it to military officials, foreign corporations and civilian supporters, "over eight million hectares of state-owned land (20 percent of total land) were given away or sold at negligible prices to friends of

13924-513: The United States . Agrarian reform had come close to extinction in the early 1930s. The first few years of the Cárdenas's reform were marked by high food prices, falling wages, high inflation, and low agricultural yields. In 1935 land reform began sweeping across the country in the periphery and core of commercial agriculture. The Cárdenas alliance with peasant groups was awarded by the destruction of

14160-563: The VARIG airline, and improved law courts. Throughout much of the First (or Old) Republic (1889–1930), Brazilian politics were consolidated in an oligarchic alliance known as coffee with milk politics (also referred to as coffee and cream). This alliance joined politicians from the dominant states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais. Starting in the 1910s, there was much discontent with the Republic, including

14396-507: The government of Spain under dictator Francisco Franco . At two inter-American conferences in the year after his election, Arévalo recommended that the republics in Latin America not recognize and support authoritarian regimes. This initiative was defeated by the dictatorships supported by the United States, such as the Somoza regime in Nicaragua. In response, Arévalo broke off diplomatic ties with

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14632-652: The hacienda system . Cárdenas distributed more land than all his revolutionary predecessors put together, a 400% increase. The land reform justified itself in terms of productivity; average agricultural production during the three-year period from 1939 to 1941 was higher than it had been at any time since the beginning of the revolution. Starting with the government of Miguel Alemán (1946–52), land reform steps made in previous governments were rolled back. Alemán's government allowed capitalist entrepreneurs to rent peasant land. This created phenomenon known as neolatifundismo , where land owners build up large-scale private farms on

14868-636: The history of Guatemala between the coups against Jorge Ubico in 1944 and Jacobo Árbenz in 1954 is known locally as the Revolution ( Spanish : La Revolución ). It has also been called the Ten Years of Spring , highlighting the peak years of representative democracy in Guatemala from 1944 until the end of the civil war in 1996. It saw the implementation of social, political, and especially agrarian reforms that were influential across Latin America . From

15104-402: The presidential election , Vargas rose to power under a provisional presidency following an armed revolution , remaining until 1934 when he was elected president under a new constitution . Three years later he seized powers under the pretext of a potential communist insurrection, beginning the eight-year long Estado Novo dictatorship. In 1942, he led Brazil into World War II on the side of

15340-602: The second and third Afghan Civil Wars , the Taliban promised land reform to Pashtun peasants as a recruiting method, and, in many cases, followed up on this promise. The Taliban began a campaign of massacring landlords (many of whom were pro- Northern Alliance ) and giving their lands to Pashtun peasants who fought for the Taliban. Get%C3%BAlio Vargas Getúlio Dornelles Vargas ( Brazilian Portuguese: [ʒeˈtulju doʁˈnɛliz ˈvaʁɡɐs] ; 19 April 1882 – 24 August 1954)

15576-432: The "constitutional solution", where Vargas would act within the boundaries of the 1891 constitution and he would be declared victor of the 1930 election, Vargas chose the "revolutionary solution" and assumed emergency powers with a provisional government as he had told Aranha from Ponta Grossa . Even amongst the poorest of Brazilians, Vargas had brought hope to them, something which drove him to oblige to his goals. For now,

15812-415: The "mathematician of the party" and named party (or majority) leader. While tasked with the crucial responsibility of ensuring the reelection of Medeiros, Vargas was also chairman of an Assembly commission dedicated to verifying election results for the state presidency, or, as his opposition put it, partaking in electoral fraud . In the latter part of his term, Vargas was in charge of leading and reporting

16048-631: The 1920s and 30s, more and more land began to be centered in the hands of just a couple families. By 1958 eight individual families owned almost 1 million acres (400 thousand hectares). However, the British did attempt to instill some reforms to increase the productivity of the land in Iraq. In 1926 the Pump Law was introduced, essentially legislating that all newly irrigated land would be tax free for 4 years. This led to some short term gains in land productivity. If land

16284-500: The 1990 elections , most of the Sandinista leaders held most of the private property and businesses that had been confiscated and nationalized by the FSLN government. This process became known as the piñata and was tolerated by the new government of Violeta Chamorro . Land reform in the 1950s largely eliminated a centuries-old system of debt peonage . Further land reform occurred after

16520-401: The 20 hectares of prime irrigated land in the 1975 law to just six hectares. It divided all land into seven classes and again allowed for larger holdings of less productive land. There was no compensation for government-expropriated surplus land and it established categories of farmers who had priority for redistributed land; sharecroppers already working on the land had highest priority. During

16756-460: The 550,000 acres (220,000 ha) that the company owned, 15% were being cultivated; the rest of the land, which was idle, came under the scope of the agrarian reform law. The United Fruit Company responded with intensive lobbying of members of the United States government, leading many US congressmen and senators to criticize the Guatemalan government for not protecting the interests of the company. The Guatemalan government responded by saying that

16992-466: The Agrarian Statute, there was also the creation of IBR (Instituto de Bienestar Rural) which "mandated to plan colonization programs, issue land titles to farmers, and provide new colonies with support services." Although IBR focused on serving the land needs of farmers their task was so big and its resources so little that their goals for helping farmers were out of reach. Paraguayan democracy came

17228-448: The Brazilian people lived under a regime lacking political parties and one which governed by decree, which they accepted. Vargas also held sympathies for a corporatist state. The old political formula, stressing the rights of man, appears to be decadent. Instead of individualism, synonym for an excess of liberty, and of communism, a new mentality for slavery, the perfect co-ordination of all initiatives should prevail, circumscribed within

17464-618: The Bureaus of Reconciliation and Arbitration ( Juntas de Conciliação e Julgamento [ pt ] ) to mediate worker-boss affairs. To protect the rights of Brazilian workers, the government limited immigration and required that at least two-thirds of all workers at any given factory be Brazilian. The president gained considerable support from organized labor with his government beginning construction on long-promised workers' housing in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, despite it being under par compared to

17700-532: The CIA, which had also trained the men in camps in Nicaragua and Honduras. Since his army was badly outnumbered by the Guatemalan army, the CIA plan required Castillo Armas to camp within the Guatemalan border, while it mounted a psychological campaign to convince the Guatemalan people and government that Castillo's victory was a fait accompli . This campaign included using Catholic priests to give anti-communist sermons, strafing several towns using CIA aircraft, and placing

17936-581: The Guatemalan Population. Historians have called this reform as one of the most successful land reforms in history. However, the United Fruit Company felt threatened by the law and lobbied the United States government, which was a factor in the US-backed coup that deposed Árbenz in 1954. The majority of the reform was rolled back by the US supported military dictatorship that followed. In 1856,

18172-434: The Guatemalan army. The propaganda broadcast by the CIA had far more effect; it succeeded in leading a Guatemalan pilot to defect, which led to Árbenz grounding the entire air force, fearing its defection. The CIA also used its planes, flown by American pilots, to bomb Guatemalan towns for psychological effect. When the old planes used by the invasion force were found to be inadequate, the CIA persuaded Eisenhower to authorize

18408-566: The Indians by paying thousands of indigenous peasants to march in Guatemala City in his support, and promising them land if they supported the Liberal party that Ubico had begun as a front for the dictatorship. By mid-October, several different plans to overthrow the junta had been set in motion by various factions of the pro-democracy movement, including teachers, students, and progressive factions of

18644-631: The Institute for Retirement and Social Welfare produced few results. The popular backlash due to these shortcomings was evidenced by the rising popularity of the National Liberation Alliance, a leftist front, in 1935. Moreover, the Faustos state that, "The nation's financial situation became untenable halfway through 1931." Payments on Brazil's foreign debt ceased in September of the same year, and

18880-468: The Iranian economy was not performing well and there was political unrest. Essentially, the land reforms amounted to a huge redistribution of land to rural peasants who previously had no possibility of owning land as they were poorly paid labourers. The land reforms continued from 1962 until 1971 with three distinct phases of land distribution: private, government-owned and endowed land. These reforms resulted in

19116-510: The Nicaraguan government and with the government of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. Frustrated by the lack of results from working with the other Latin American governments, Arévalo began to support the Caribbean Legion , which sought to replace dictatorships with democracies across Latin America, by force if necessary. This led to the administration being labelled as communist by

19352-637: The Paraguay we see today and as well as what has brought along the unequal land distributions. From the War of the Triple Alliance (1864–1870) Paraguay came out losing land to Argentina , Brazil , and Uruguay as well as suffered from a great decline in population and was left with political instability. Land in Paraguay has been known to be unequally distributed therefore prolonging rural poverty in Paraguay . Following

19588-580: The Republic of Venezuela in 1811. Throughout the 19th century and early 20th century, land was increasingly concentrated in the hands of a smaller set of landowners. A land reform was implemented in 1918 that allowed individuals to claim unclaimed land. During the brief first period of democracy ( El Trienio Adeco , 1945–48), the Democratic Action government redistributed land which it said had been gained illicitly by members of previous governments, and in mid-1948 it enacted an agrarian reform law. Most of

19824-468: The Republicans had gotten themselves into. He said, "I will send them all to arrive there in time. Only the impossible will deter me from coming to the help of my comrades." Before he could command any real action, president Medeiros messaged Vargas to hand over the military as he had been named federal deputy, a vacant seat he ran for in 1922, and deputies could only command troops with the permission of

20060-570: The Soviet Union. By 1954 Árbenz had become desperate for weapons, and decided to acquire them secretly from Czechoslovakia , which would have been the first time that a Soviet bloc country shipped weapons to the Americas. The shipment of these weapons acted as the final spur for the CIA to launch its coup. On 18 June 1954, Castillo Armas led a convoy of trucks carrying 480 men across the border from Honduras into Guatemala. The weapons had come from

20296-579: The UFC. In 1946 this union organized a strike, which provoked Arévalo into outlawing all strikes until a new labor code was passed. This led to efforts on the part of employers to stall the labor code, as well as to exploit workers as far as possible before it was passed. The unions were also damaged when the US government persuaded the American Federation of Labor to found the Organización Regional Internacional del Trabajo (ORIT),

20532-563: The US government for the overthrow of Árbenz, and the US State Department responded by engineering a coup under the pretext that Árbenz was a communist. Carlos Castillo Armas took power at the head of a military junta, starting the Guatemalan Civil War . The war lasted from 1960 to 1996, and saw the military commit genocide against the indigenous Maya peoples and widespread human rights violations against civilians. Prior to

20768-403: The United Fruit Company (UFC) was seen as an impediment to progress by Guatemalan revolutionaries after 1944. This image was worsened by the company's discriminatory policies towards its colored workers. Thanks to its position as the country's largest landowner and employer, the reforms of Arévalo's government affected the UFC more than other companies. Among other things, the labor code passed by

21004-570: The White Revolution, contributed to the revolution in 1979 which overthrew the Shah and turned Iran into an Islamic republic. Under British Mandate , Iraq's land was moved from communal land owned by the tribe to tribal sheikhs that agreed to work with the British Empire . Known as compradors , these families controlled much of Iraq's arable land until the end of British rule in 1958 . Throughout

21240-464: The administration of Harry Truman had become convinced that the Guatemalan government had been penetrated by communists, it relied on purely diplomatic and economic means to try and reduce the communist influence, at least until the end of its term. The United States had refused to sell arms to the Guatemalan government after 1944; in 1951 it began to block weapons purchases by Guatemala from other countries. In 1952 Truman became sufficiently convinced of

21476-501: The aegis of the state and to incorpoate the working class into the government's array of supporters." To achieve these goals, Vargas, notably, created the Ministry of Labor, Industry, and Commerce ( Ministério do Trabalho [ pt ] ) in November 1930, nominating Lindolfo Collor as the first Minister of Labor. Laws were passed to protect workers, a March 1931 decree brought unions into line, and Vargas's government established

21712-436: The alliance. During the campaign, Vargas had also been careful not to offend planter landowners, though he did advocate moderate social reform and economic nationalism. The Liberal Alliance, amongst other social issues, pushed for agricultural schools, industrial training centres, sanitation to the countryside, establishing workers' vacations and a minimum wage, political reforms, individuals' freedom, and consumer co-operatives,

21948-559: The amount of land actually subject to redistribution. Finally, the government lacked the technical data and organizational bodies to pursue the program after it was announced. After the 1978 Saur Revolution , the communist Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) issued Decree No. 6, which canceled gerau and other mortgage debts of agricultural laborers, tenants, and small landowners with less than two hectares of land. The cancellation applied only to debts contracted before 1973. The Decree No. 8 of November 1978 made new landholdings from

22184-408: The army. On 19 October, the government learned of one of these conspiracies. That same day, a small group of army officers launched a coup, led by Francisco Javier Arana and Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán . Although the coup had initially been plotted by Árbenz and Major Aldana Sandoval , Sandoval had prevailed upon Arana to join them; however, Sandoval himself did not participate in the coup attempt, and

22420-482: The basis of controlling land which remains ejidal but is not sown by the peasants to whom it is assigned. In 1970, President Luis Echeverría began his term by declaring land reform dead. In the face of peasant revolt, he was forced to backtrack, and embarked on the biggest land reform program since Cárdenas. Echeverría legalized take-overs of huge foreign-owned private farms, which were turned into new collective ejidos . In 1988, President Carlos Salinas de Gortari

22656-544: The beginning of the Cold War , the US and the CIA tended to assume that everybody who opposed it was a communist. Thus, despite Arévalo's ban of the communist party, important figures in the US government were already predisposed to believe that the revolutionary government had been infiltrated by communists, and was a danger to the US. During the years of the revolution, several reports and memoranda were circulated amongst US government agencies that furthered this belief. Although

22892-557: The beginning of the Great Depression , there was no longer any demand for Brazil's agricultural production. Planters found financial ruin, unemployment in cities grew, foreign revenue declined, and convertible money was no longer in circulation. For instance, the price of coffee was 22.5 cents per pound in 1929, but this plummeted to a mere eight cents in 1931. Though Vargas promoted the diversification of agriculture, especially with cotton, he also recognized that he could not abandon

23128-614: The beginning of what would become the most repressive state in the hemisphere". Following the coup and the establishment of the military dictatorship, a series of leftist insurgencies began in the countryside, frequently with a large degree of popular support, which triggered the Guatemalan Civil War that lasted until 1996. The largest of these movements was led by the Guerrilla Army of the Poor , which at its largest point had 270,000 members. Two-hundred thousand (200,000) civilians were killed in

23364-412: The belief that the only way to alleviate the backwardness of most Guatemalans was through a paternalistic government. He was strongly opposed to classical Marxism , and believed in a capitalist society that was regulated to ensure that its benefits went to the entire population. Arévalo's ideology was reflected in the new constitution that the Guatemalan assembly ratified soon after his inauguration, which

23600-549: The brutal working conditions in Guatemala City. From the beginning, the new unions that were formed fell into two camps, those that were communist and those that were not. The repressive policies of the Ubico government had driven both factions underground, but they re-emerged after the revolution. The communist movement was also strengthened by the release of those of its leaders who had been imprisoned by Ubico. Among them were Miguel Mármol, Víctor Manuel Gutiérrez , and Graciela García,

23836-537: The budget. During the 1923 civil war in Rio Grande do Sul, Vargas was called upon to lead a military unit with Republicans. He would organize the Seventh Provisional Division, and, when Republicans Oswaldo Aranha and José Antonio Flores da Cunha were under siege by Liberationists, led two-hundred-fifty provisórios as lieutenant colonel , marching one hundred miles at night to Uruguaiana to "defend

24072-405: The building of the state". It has been argued that the land reform represented work by the 'socialist government', however, by 1984 the private sector controlled 74 percent of Syria's arable land. This questions both Ba'ath claims of commitment to the redistribution of land to the majority of peasants as well as the state government being socialist (if it allowed the majority of land to be owned in

24308-556: The campesino movement is still ongoing due to the desire to continue their campesino traditions and to be able to make a living wage doing so. The Ottoman Land Code of 1858 (1274 in the Islamic calendar ) was the beginning of a systematic land reform programme started during the Tanzimat period by Sultan Abdülmecid I of the Ottoman Empire during the latter half of the 19th century, with

24544-594: The channeling of religious feelings toward the state, though. Hoping to tackle the issue of education as well, Vargas's government immediately introduced new measures to improve what was perceived as a problem in Brazil. Like religion, reform was tried in the 1920s at first, beginning at the state level. However, Vargas's new government sought to centralize education, creating the Ministry of Education and Health in November 1930. The initiatives were based on "authoritarianism" and

24780-453: The church received support for the new government from the majority of Brazil's Catholics . In April 1931, a decree allowed religion to be taught in public schools. This was all despite the fact that Vargas was firmly agnostic (though Darci practiced Roman Catholicism), going as far as to name his first son Lutero, an un-Catholic name. His purpose for the union between the church and state was to build popular support for his government through

25016-550: The coffee sector, which Brazil was highly dependent upon . Therefore, the Vargas government took measures to address the sector's financial ruin. On 10 February 1933, Vargas created the National Coffee Department (DNC) ( Departamento Nacional do Café [ pt ] ), and in March 1931, Vargas issued a decree which barred imports of machinery for industries suffering from overproduction. Still, Vargas's government

25252-403: The company obtained a series of concessions in the country that allowed it to massively expand its business. These concessions frequently came at the cost of tax revenue for the Guatemalan government. The company supported Jorge Ubico in the leadership struggle that occurred from 1930 to 1932, and upon assuming power, Ubico expressed willingness to create a new contract with it. This new contract

25488-477: The company was the main obstacle to progress in the country. American historians observed that "To the Guatemalans it appeared that their country was being mercilessly exploited by foreign interests which took huge profits without making any contributions to the nation's welfare." In 1953, 200,000 acres (81,000 ha) of uncultivated land was expropriated by the government, which offered the company compensation at

25724-418: The company. The company had begun a public relations campaign to discredit the Guatemalan government; it hired public relations expert Edward Bernays , who ran a concerted effort to portray the company as the victim of the Guatemalan government for several years. The company stepped up its efforts after Dwight Eisenhower had been elected in 1952. These included commissioning a research study on Guatemala from

25960-477: The connectivity of rural communities. Contrary to the predictions made by the detractors of the government, the law resulted in a slight increase in Guatemalan agricultural productivity, and to an increase in cultivated area. Purchases of farm machinery also increased. Overall, the law resulted in a significant improvement in living standards for many thousands of peasant families, the majority of whom were indigenous people . Historian Piero Gleijeses stated that

26196-452: The coup were to be carried out. Manuals of assassination techniques were compiled, and lists were also made of people whom the junta would dispose of. After considering several candidates to lead the coup, including Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes, the CIA settled on Carlos Castillo Armas. The US state department also embarked on a campaign to ensure that other countries would not sympathize with the Guatemalan government, by linking it to communism and

26432-408: The coup. He was opposed to handing over power to a civilian government, first seeking to postpone the 1944 election, and then to annul it. In return for allowing Arévalo to become president, Arana was granted the newly created position of "chief of the armed forces", ranked above the minister of defense. The position had a six-year term, and controlled all military appointments. In December 1945, Arévalo

26668-425: The creation of administrative mechanisms for this law in 1948 allowed several of its provisions to be systematically enforced. The law as a whole had a huge positive impact on worker rights in the country, including raising the average wages by a factor of three or more. The Arévalo government attempted to support democratic ideals abroad as well. One of Arévalo's first actions was to break diplomatic relations with

26904-448: The departure of the majority of Europeans. Land reforms were first implemented in Syria during 1958. The Agricultural Relations Law laid down a redistribution of rights in landownership, tenancy and management. The reforms were halted in 1961 due to a culmination of factors, including opposition from large landowners and severe crop failure during a drought between 1958 and 1961, whilst Syria

27140-590: The depths of the Paraguayan campo (countryside). Despite their struggle with poverty, inequality and land rights, Paraguayans are proud of their campesino structure and the traditional culture that arises from it, with this culture being the most prominent in Paraguay than anywhere else in Latin America. In December 2017, “over one-third of the population was impoverished and 19% were living in ‘extreme poverty’”, so “the further centralization of land and power has only functioned to exacerbate socio-economic issues.” Thus,

27376-447: The dictatorial governments in the region. The Arévalo government also floated the idea of a Central American Federation, as being the only way that a democratic government could survive in the region. He approached several leaders of democratic Central American countries, but was rejected by all except Castañeda Castro , the president of El Salvador. The two leaders began talks to build a union, and set up several commissions to look into

27612-446: The dispute was settled before he arrived, later saying that living under difficult conditions allowed him to learn to judge others, though he was disappointed from being kept idle and non-combatant. He asked for a discharge once again, and was able to obtain paperwork falsely stating he had had epilepsy . Vargas was admitted to the law school at Porto Alegre and adapted easily to the elitist climate among students. He became active in

27848-517: The early 1980s, the effects of land reform in Egypt drew to a halt as the population of Egypt moved away from agriculture. The Egyptian land reform laws were greatly curtailed under Anwar Sadat and eventually abolished. Significant land reform in Iran took place under the shah as part of the socio-economic reforms of the White Revolution, begun in 1962, and agreed upon through a public referendum . At this time

28084-541: The education reform done in the state of Bahia after twenty years (1928–1948). On 16 April 1948, Teixeira gave a speech in the capital, Salvador : Most of the state's educational efforts are performed by a cadre of primary schoolteachers centered in cities or dispersed throughout the interior, where in almost all cases there are no school buildings, only makeshift classrooms, and virtually no teaching materials. There are few state-funded secondary schools in Bahia, which lamentably

28320-444: The enormous increase in Peru's external debt at the beginning of the 1970s. State bankruptcy was partly caused by the cheap credit the government extended to promote agrarian development, state subsidies, and administrative expenditures to carry out the agrarian reform during this period. The more radical effects of this reform were reversed by president Fernando Belaúnde Terry in the 1980s . A third land reform occurred as part of

28556-403: The estates were between 672 acres (272 ha) and 224 acres (91 ha) in size, uncultivated land was expropriated only if less than two-thirds of it was in use. The owners were compensated with government bonds, the value of which was equal to that of the land expropriated. The value of the land itself was the value that the owners had declared in their tax returns in 1952. The redistribution

28792-400: The expectation that Mexico would develop a class of small owners. This was to be accomplished through the provisions of Ley Lerdo that prohibited ownership of land by the Church and the municipalities . The reform government also financed its war effort by seizing and selling church property and other large estates. Little land was acquired by individual small holders. After the war, the role of

29028-493: The fact that he had chosen to go into exile in conservative Argentina rather than revolutionary Mexico reassured landowners worried about socialist or communist reform. The subsequent elections took place in December 1944, and were broadly considered free and fair, although only literate men were given the vote. Unlike in similar historical situations, none of the junta members stood for election. Arévalo's closest challenger

29264-584: The federal government maintained a responsibility for protecting the secret vote in elections, and many voting reforms were introduced, including the establishment of the Electoral Justice , women's suffrage , and a lowering of the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen. Fraud was reduced, and the Electoral Justice was tasked with the organization and oversight of elections and the judgement of appeals. Guatemalan Revolution The period in

29500-527: The federal government to pay half of the rebels' debt, and refused to bomb or invade the city of São Paulo during the conflict, rather limiting fighting to the outskirts of the city. Vargas, especially during his early years, was always in danger of being ousted by one or more of the groups in his coalition, including the anti-São Paulo planters, the bourgeoisie, and the military. Rumors circulated in his provisional presidency about coups both left- and right-wing, though they had no basis. Under Vargas's regime,

29736-658: The first land reform was driven by the ley Lerdo (the Lerdo law), enacted by the Liberal Party government of the Second Federal Republic of Mexico . One of the aims of the reform government was to develop the economy by returning to productive cultivation the underutilized lands of the Roman Catholic Church and the municipal communities (Indian commons), which required the division of these lands for sale, with

29972-399: The forthcoming election. This resulted in growing support for an armed revolution among some sections of the populace. By now, the army was disillusioned with the junta, and progressives within it had begun to plot a coup. On 1 October 1944, Alejandro Cordova, the editor of El Imparcial , the main opposition newspaper, was assassinated. This led to the military coup plotters reaching out to

30208-525: The fourth world's largest distributors of soy . Due to this distribution, soy companies are the largest landowners, taking over 80 percent of the land. This production has negatively impacted the lives of rural peasants by leaving them without their own land. Thus, in March 2017, the streets of Paraguay's capital were filled with more than 1000 campesinos demanding for agrarian reform. Thousands of rural peasants demand access to land, fair agricultural prices for what they produce and technical assistance. Due to

30444-460: The gaucho boss that he was not to be treated lightly, and not such a dramatic ruction as to make a later composition impossible." Medeiros still needed the powerful Vargases' support, however. Near the end of 1916, Vargas refused an offer from Medeiros to become the state's police chief, opting instead to successfully run for reelection as a state deputy and would remain for two terms. Throughout his renewed tenure, he was, satirically, described as

30680-417: The government allowed its workers to strike when their demands for higher wages and job security were not met. The company saw itself as being specifically targeted by the reforms, and refused to negotiate with the numerous sets of strikers, despite frequently being in violation of the new laws. The company's labor troubles were compounded in 1952 when Jacobo Árbenz passed Decree 900, the agrarian reform law. Of

30916-465: The government is required to "expropriate for the purpose of agrarian reform , rural property that is not performing its social function" (Article 184). However, the "social function" mentioned there is not well defined, and hence the so-called First Land Reform National Plan never was put into action. Land in Bolivia was unequally distributed – 92% of the cultivable land was held by large estates – until

31152-464: The government. When Ubico resigned in 1944, Árbenz had witnessed Ponce Vaides intimidate the congress into naming him president. Highly offended by this, Árbenz plotted against Ponce Vaides, and was one of the military leaders of the coup that toppled him, in addition to having been one of the few officers in the revolution who had formed and maintained connections to the popular civilian movement. The biggest component of Árbenz's project of modernization

31388-407: The ideas of his party". Halfway there at Itaqui , he found the railway cut and an absence of mounts for his horsemen. According to Aranha's brother Adalberto, Vargas was persistent, decisive, and speedy throughout the crisis. He ordered his forces out of the town and the embarkation of his troops on requisitioned river barges. Vargas also ignored low water warnings to save the detrimental situation

31624-431: The ideology of the revolution as radical communist, it did not in fact represent a major shift leftward, and was staunchly anti-communist . Arévalo's economic vision for the country was centered around private enterprise. The revolution in 1944 left many of the biggest opponents of organized labor unaffected, such as the landed elite and the United Fruit Company. The revolution, and election of Arévalo, nonetheless marked

31860-401: The incident were not made public. Árbenz's role as defense minister had already made him a strong candidate for the presidency, and his firm support of the government during the 1949 uprising further increased his prestige. In 1950, the economically moderate Partido de Integridad Nacional (PIN) announced that Árbenz would be its presidential candidate in the upcoming election. This announcement

32096-499: The increase in soy production, campesinos has been forced out of their lands leading them to demand land regulations. This demand of the stabilization and fairness of agricultural prices is a result of Paraguay's government failing to sustain secure prices for their produce which are leaving them to live in extreme poverty. In the effect of no secure economy for their produce, campesinos mandate technical help. A great majority of Paraguayans continue to practice subsistence agriculture in

32332-483: The injustices corrected by the law were far greater than the injustice of the relatively few arbitrary land seizures. Historian Greg Grandin stated that the law was flawed in many respects; among other things, it was too cautious and deferential to the planters, and it created communal divisions among peasants. Nonetheless, it represented a fundamental power shift in favor of those that had been marginalized before then. The United Fruit Company had been formed in 1899 by

32568-414: The interests of the landed elite. Two days after Ponce Vaides' resignation, a violent protest erupted at Patzicía , a small Indian hamlet. The junta responded with swift brutality, silencing the protest. The dead civilians included women and children. Juan José Arévalo Bermejo was born into a middle-class family in 1904. He became a primary school teacher for a brief while, and then earned a scholarship to

32804-510: The issue. In late 1945 they announced the formation of the union, but the formalization of the process got delayed by internal troubles in both countries, and in 1948 the Castro government was toppled in a military coup led by Óscar Osorio . As the highest-ranking military officer in the October Revolution, Francisco Arana had led the three-man junta that formed the interim government after

33040-418: The judiciary branch was allowed to remain with modification on all levels of government. Ensuring his support, Vargas also named federal "intervenors" to administer the Brazilian states and replace presidents (governors), with the only exception being Minas Gerais, where the president was allowed to remain as interventor. Nearly all these actions were perscribed in a single decree on 11 November 1930. Since

33276-456: The knowledge that a paulista would succeed Bernardes, Vargas cultivated the São Paulo delegation during Bernardes' presidency. When Washington Luís was elected president in 1926, he chose Vargas to become his Minister of Finance . This was despite the fact Vargas had virtually no fiscal experience, even going as far as to deny joining a finance committee when he was in Congress. The appointment

33512-457: The labor movement. In 1938 he had met and married María Villanova , who was also interested in social reform, and who became a significant influence on him and a national figure in her own right. Another strong influence on him was José Manuel Fortuny , a well-known Guatemalan communist, who was one of his main advisers during his government. In 1944, disgusted with Ubico's authoritarian regime, he and his fellow officers had begun plotting against

33748-548: The lack of an opposition and the Republican political machine , Vargas's election was assured and he became the president of the state with his term set to expire in 1932. Vargas was active throughout his two-year tenure. In one instance, he vetoed dishonest election results which favored his political party. In another, he negotiated a ceasefire between his state's two warring factions and successfully ended decades of hostility. With that, he also made peace with other groups in

33984-401: The land didn't have any knowledge about how to cultivate the land and grow crops. In many cases, peasants didn't even water, since water infrastructures were still missing in most of the regions. The land reform made Venezuela more dependent on foreign food imports. Moreover, in some cases, campesinos didn't gain direct ownership of the land, but only the right to farm it without having to pay

34220-399: The land redistributed in this way was returned to its previous owners during the 1948-58 dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez . After the 1958 restoration of democracy, a new land reform law was enacted in March 1960, with reform in the early 1960s concentrated in the northeastern states of Miranda , Aragua and Carabobo , and coming largely from expropriated private landholdings. The reform

34456-517: The land-holdings of the United Fruit Company were the most extensive, had been ruled by an anti-communist government sympathetic to the United States since 1932. These developments created tension between the other governments and Árbenz, which was exacerbated by Arévalo's support for the Caribbean Legion. This support also worried the United States and the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency . According to US historian Richard Immerman , during

34692-432: The late 19th century until 1944, Guatemala was governed by a series of authoritarian rulers who sought to strengthen the economy by supporting the export of coffee. Between 1898 and 1920, Manuel Estrada Cabrera granted significant concessions to the United Fruit Company , an American corporation that traded in tropical fruit, and dispossessed many indigenous people of their communal lands. Under Jorge Ubico , who ruled as

34928-527: The latter unusual for being a woman in a movement that women were discouraged from participating in. The communists began to organize in the capital, and established a school for workers, known as the Escuela Claridad, or the Clarity School, which taught reading, writing, and also helped organize unions. Six months after the school was established, President Arévalo closed the school down, and deported all

35164-423: The leaders of the movement who were not Guatemalan. However, the communist movement survived, mostly by its dominance of the teachers' union. Arévalo's response toward the non-communist unions was mixed. In 1945, he criminalized all rural labor unions in workplaces with fewer than 500 workers, which included most plantations. One of the few unions big enough to survive this law was of the banana workers employed by

35400-532: The leaders of the protests, in an attempt to turn the coup into a popular uprising. Ponce Vaides announced elections, but the pro-democracy forces denounced them as a fraud, citing his attempts to rig them. Ponce Vaides sought to stabilize his regime by playing on inter-racial tension within the Guatemalan population. The most vocal support for the revolution had come from the Ladinos , or people of mixed racial or Spanish descent. Ponce Vaides sought to exploit their fear of

35636-434: The majority of which Vargas would go on to install in the Brazilian economy. Much to the distaste of the opposition, Júlio Prestes was declared winner of the 1930 election. This, however, did not go without many claims of electoral fraud, though fraud was committed on both sides. Electoral machines produced votes in all Brazilian states, including Rio Grande do Sul, where Vargas won 298,627 votes to 982. Although many in

35872-456: The merger of two large American corporations. The new company had major holdings of land and railroads across Central America, which it used to support its business of exporting bananas. In 1900 it was already the world's largest exporter of bananas. By 1930 it had an operating capital of US$ 215 million and had been the largest landowner and employer in Guatemala for several years. Under Manuel Estrada Cabrera and other Guatemalan presidents,

36108-508: The methods Vargas used in quelling his opposition ranged from light peace terms to jailing political opponents. Ousted in 1945 after fifteen years in power, Vargas returned to the presidency democratically after winning the 1950 Brazilian general election . However, a growing political crisis led to his suicide in 1954, prematurely ending his second presidency. Getúlio Dornelles Vargas was born in São Borja, Rio Grande do Sul, on 19 April 1882,

36344-642: The needs of the growing population. He also began taking repressive measures toward leftist organizations in respect to the economy, particularly the Brazilian Communist Party . The economic regulations Vargas imposed, however, were still being circumvented as late as 1941. While it was impossible for the minimum wage laws to be evaded by large businesses or in large towns, the minimum rural salary of 1943 was, in many cases, simply not abided by employers. In fact, many social policies never extended to rural areas. While each state varied, social legislation

36580-465: The newly created peasant landowners owning six to seven million hectares, around 52-63% of Iran's agricultural land. According to Country-Data, even though there had been a considerable redistribution of land, the amount received by individual peasants was not enough to meet most families' basic needs, "About 75 percent of the peasant owners [however] had less than 7 hectares, an amount generally insufficient for anything but subsistence agriculture.". By 1979

36816-479: The north, not to depose Washington Luis, but to realise the program of the revolution... I am merely a transitory expression of the collective will. Members of the junta of Rio de Janeiro will be accepted as collaborators but not directors, since these elements joined the revolution at the time when its success was assured. Under these conditions, I will enter with the southern forces into the state of São Paulo, which will be occupied by troops I can trust. We will arrange

37052-446: The official leader of the Rio Grande do Sul congressional delegation, the same year he was forced to take his daughter Alzira out of school in November after a warship opened fire on Rio de Janeiro as part of the tenente rebellions . According to Levine, Vargas's "most noteworthy achievement as a congressman came in 1925, when as a member of a commission studying constitutional reform he advocated greater government authority." With

37288-411: The opposition considered orchestrating a coup following the results, Vargas claimed that they did not have enough power to dispute the election successfully. It seemed the planned coup would not be executed. However, in the wake of the assassination of João Pessoa , Vargas's running mate, for romantic reasons, the opposition decided it was ultimately time to take up arms, and Vargas agreed. Although

37524-500: The orbit of the State; and class organisations should be recognised as collaborators in public administration. Through his provisional government, it was apparent that Vargas was attempting to centralize his power. After dissolving state and municipal legislatures as well as the National Congress , Vargas assumed all policymaking power of the legislative and executive branches and the ability to name and dismiss public officials at will, though

37760-556: The others to return. Still having time to serve, Vargas was then transferred to Porto Alegre and joined the 25th Infantry Battalion. He tried leaving to enroll in law school, but his discharge was delayed due to a medical examination that was required. Coincidentally, Vargas was sent to Corumbá in what was then Mato Grosso before his examination was conducted when a border crisis broke out between Bolivia and Brazil in February 1903. The disillusioned Vargas did not have to fight as

37996-441: The ousting of the president, were concerned as it had been done without previous notice to the revolutionaries. Vargas went by train to São Paulo and continued toward Rio de Janeiro (then the nation's capital), and telegraphed to the junta on 24 October 1930 : I am on the São Paulo border with thirty thousand men perfectly armed and acting in combination with the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, Santa Catarina, Minas Gerais and

38232-419: The overall aims of increasing state revenue generated from land and for the state to be able to have greater control over individual plots of land. This was followed by the 1873 land emancipation act . Initially, Egyptian land reform essentially abolished the political influence of major land owners. However, land reform only resulted in the redistribution of about 15% of Egypt's land under cultivation, and by

38468-494: The overthrow of Árbenz. The CIA operation to overthrow Jacobo Árbenz, code-named Operation PBSuccess , was authorized by Eisenhower in August 1953. The operation was granted a budget of 2.7 million dollars for "psychological warfare and political action". The total budget has been estimated at between 5 and 7 million dollars, and the planning employed over 100 CIA agents. The CIA planning included drawing up lists of people within Árbenz's government to be assassinated if

38704-412: The plan. In November 1952, Dwight Eisenhower was elected president of the US. Eisenhower's campaign had included a pledge for a more active anti-communist policy. Several figures in his administration, including Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his brother and CIA director Allen Dulles had close ties to the United Fruit Company. Both of these factors made Eisenhower predisposed to supporting

38940-415: The planting of wheat and created a department of agriculture. Vargas doubled the amount of primary schools in the state, oversaw the construction of bridges and roads, and revisited the railroad contract between Rio Grande do Sul and the federal government in order to favor the state. Despite that, he remained loyal to Luís's administration and maintained ties to the federal government. Vargas also championed

39176-444: The population, had received land by this point. The decree also included provision of financial credit to the people who received the land. The National Agrarian Bank ( Banco Nacional Agrario , or BNA) was created on 7 July 1953, and by June 1954 it had disbursed more than $ 9 million in small loans. 53,829 applicants received an average of 225 US dollars, which was twice as much as the Guatemalan per capita income. The BNA developed

39412-459: The presidency during that event, he reversed the land reform. However, the reversal was declared null when the coup failed and Chávez returned to power. By the end of 2003, 60,000 families had received temporary title to a total of 55,000 km² of land under this plan. Despite the land reforms carried out by the government, which, according to some sources, have reduced the so-called latifundios (which means "big landownership"), most receivers of

39648-435: The presidency, but after his election his policy quickly became authoritarian. He abolished the system of debt peonage , and replaced it with a vagrancy law, which required all men of working age who did not own land to perform a minimum of 100 days of hard labor. In addition, the state made use of unpaid Indian labor to work on public infrastructure like roads and railroads. Ubico also froze wages at very low levels, and passed

39884-581: The presidency. Acknowledging Medeiros's autocratic philosophy was the reason for this; a successor was in Medeiros's control and he could have vetoed any nomination. Despite this, Vargas had many beneficial factors on his side: Medeiros's debt, his national achievements, his distancing from intrastate quarrels, his popularity amongst party youth such as Aranha, and his ability to mediate difficult situations. Medeiros selected Vargas as his successor, followed by Vargas's resignation from Luís's cabinet in late 1927. With

40120-466: The president ( governor ) in 1928, he gained valuable recognition and experience on a national level. In 1928, Medeiros was to complete his lengthy tenure and depart from the presidency of Rio Grande do Sul. Vargas, meanwhile, looked on with caution, so far as to prevent a journalist from writing about Vargas's audiences in Diario de Noticias back in Porto Alegre, believing it would pass off as an attempt for

40356-529: The president was elected in March, he wasn't to be sworn in until November, leaving time for Luís to transition power to the president-elect, Prestes. Alongside his co-conspirators, Vargas planned to overthrow the federal government in an armed revolution. This revolution, known as the Revolution of 1930 , began on 3 October. Railway workers went on strike. In Recife , the capital of Pernambuco , citizens invaded government buildings, seized an arsenal, and wrecked

40592-525: The private sector how could it truly be socialist?). Hinnebusch argued that the reforms were a way of galvanising support from the large rural population: "they [Ba'ath Party members] used the implementation of agrarian reform to win over and organise peasants and curb traditional power in the countryside". To this extent the reforms succeeded and resulted with an increase in Ba'ath party membership. They also prevented political threat emerging from rural areas by bringing

40828-411: The protests. Press freedom was suspended, arbitrary detentions continued, and memorial services for slain revolutionaries were prohibited. However, the protests had grown to the point where the government could not stamp them out, and rural areas also began organizing against the dictatorship. The government began using the police to intimidate the indigenous population to keep the junta in power through

41064-674: The public in the US that the Guatemalan government needed to be overthrown. In addition to the lobbying of the United Fruit Company, several other factors also led the United States to launch the coup that toppled Árbenz in 1954. During the years of the Guatemalan Revolution, military coups occurred in several other Central American countries that brought firmly anti-communist governments to power. Army officer Major Oscar Osorio won staged elections in El Salvador in 1950, Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista took power in 1952. Honduras, where

41300-515: The rate of 2.99 US dollars to the acre, twice what the company had paid when it bought the property. More expropriation occurred soon after, bringing the total to over 400,000 acres (160,000 ha); the government offered compensation to the company at the rate at which the UFC had valued its own property for tax purposes. This resulted in further lobbying in Washington, particularly through Secretary of State John Foster Dulles , who had close ties to

41536-477: The regime, who accumulated huge tracts of land." Stroessner also faked an alliance with the Colorado Party in order to distribute public land. Campesinos' cries for help for land reform were ignored and the prosecution against them continued, causing them to suffer from high poverty rates. June S. Beittel said that as a result of the unequal distribution of land it left, “ rural areas the most poverty-stricken.” In

41772-503: The reinstatement of the constitution. They also presented him a petition signed by 311 of the most prominent Guatemalan citizens. Ubico sent the police to disrupt the protests by firing on them, and declared martial law. Clashes between protesters and the military continued for a week, during which the revolt gained momentum. At the end of June, Ubico submitted his resignation to the National Assembly, leading to huge celebrations in

42008-459: The relationship much closer, evident in the unveiling of the statue of Christ the Redeemer on 12 October 1931. Vargas and his ministers were present at the unveiling, and Cardinal Leme, who was influential in the ousting of president Luís, declared Brazil as "the most holy heart of Jesus, whom it recognized as its King and Lord." Vargas's government took special measures in favor of the church, and

42244-601: The remaining landlords, and/or traveling to the United States. See also: México Indígena (2005-2008 project) During and after the Nicaraguan Revolution (1979), the Sandinista government officially announced their political platform which included land reform. The last months of Sandinista rule were criticized for the Piñata Plan, which distributed large tracts of land to prominent Sandinistas. After their loss in

42480-412: The rent and without sanctions from the government, and in some cases the land wasn't given to single peasant family, but managed in communes . According to some sources, the expropriated land amounts to 4-5 million hectares . Paraguay has been known to have experienced some obstacles in its political history that have been known mostly as dictatorship and corruption. Paraguay's history is what has shaped

42716-419: The revolutionaries, and for this crucial role he was rewarded with a place on the junta. The junta promised free and open elections to the presidency and the congress, as well as for a constituent assembly . The resignation of Ponce Vaides and the creation of the junta has been considered by scholars to be the beginning of the Guatemalan Revolution. However, the revolutionary junta did not immediately threaten

42952-500: The rural population into the system as supporters. Afghanistan has had a couple of attempts at land reform. In 1975, the Republic of Afghanistan under President Mohammad Daoud Khan responded to the inequities of the existing land tenure conditions by issuing a Land Reform Law. It limited individual holdings to a maximum of 20 hectares of irrigated, double-cropped land. Larger holdings were allowed for less productive land. The government

43188-482: The state civil war and gave a speech stating the state government had it under control. In reality, there was doubt this statement was true and Medeiros had had to raise private loans in Uruguay to pay for war expenses. Vargas also had to lead his bloc of gaúcho deputies, demoralized after an editorial appeared in Porto Alegre calling for the acceptance of the incoming Artur Bernardes administration. In 1924, Vargas became

43424-510: The state government about the Vargases' "coercive" actions, and in 1933, during Vargas's first presidency, two of his nephews were killed in a border clash. Vargas's mother Cândida was described as being "short and fat and pleasant" by her nephew Spártaco. Her side of the family came from the Azores and included some founders of Porto Alegre , the capital of Rio Grande do Sul. Vargas's father Manuel

43660-508: The state in land policy expanded during the presidency of Porfirio Diaz . The aim was to extinguish traditional subsistence farming and make agriculture in Mexico a dynamic commercial sector as part of Mexico's modernization. Land was concentrated in the hands of large-scale owners, a great many of them foreigners, leaving peasantry, the largest sector of the Mexican population, landless. Peasant unrest

43896-640: The state, such as making concessions to Liberationists. Levine states, "As governor, Vargas achieved bipartisan support for his government, for the first time in generations." Along with Aranha, who carried out his economic program, he provided credit to cattle ranchers and created interventionist cooperatives to bring in resources and lower export prices for agriculture. Vargas established the Banco do Rio Grande do Sul (Bank of Rio Grande do Sul) to lend money to farmers and touched upon education, mining, agriculture, and roads. The people rallied around him as Vargas promoted

44132-402: The streets. The resignation of Ubico did not restore democracy. Ubico appointed three generals, Federico Ponce Vaides , Eduardo Villagrán Ariza , and Buenaventura Pineda , to a junta which would lead the provisional government. A few days later, Ponce Vaides persuaded the congress to appoint him interim president. Ponce pledged to hold free elections soon, while at the same time suppressing

44368-505: The students' republican faction and served as an editor and profile writer for the school's newspaper, O Debate (The Debate). Vargas and his friends were also influenced by the late politician Júlio de Castilhos , creating the Bloco Acadêmico Castilhista (Castilho's Academic Block) to keep his ideas alive after his death. During his time at the school, Vargas was appointed the valedictorian of his class and stayed in

44604-552: The support of the army, Jacobo Árbenz resigned on 27 June 1954, handing over power to Colonel Carlos Enrique Diaz . US ambassador John Peurifoy then mediated negotiations held in El Salvador between the army leadership and Castillo Armas which led to Castillo being included in the ruling military junta on 7 July 1954, and was named provisional president a few days later. The US recognized the new government on 13 July. Elections were held in early October, from which all political parties were barred from participating, and Castillo Armas

44840-412: The third of five sons born to Manuel do Nascimento Vargas and Cândida Dornelles Vargas. Located near Brazil's border with Argentina , the town of São Borja was a center of smuggling, political adventurism, and armed conflict, and Rio Grande do Sul was also known for an unusually violent history. The Vargas family reflected some of these characteristics. In 1919, 76 residents of São Borja complained to

45076-461: The threat posed by Árbenz to start planning a covert overthrow, titled Operation PBFortune . The plan had originally been suggested by the US-supported dictator of Nicaragua, Anastasio Somoza García , who said that if he were given weapons, he could overthrow the Guatemalan government. Truman gave the CIA permission to go ahead with the plan, without informing the state department. The CIA placed

45312-445: The trip to Rio [de Janeiro] later. It is unnecessary for me to say that the march upon São Paulo and the subsequent military occupation is merely to guarantee military order. We have no desire to antagonise or humiliate our brothers from this state, who deserve only our esteem and appreciation. Before beginning our march for São Paulo tomorrow I want to hear any proposals that the junta may wish to make. Vargas arrived in Rio de Janeiro in

45548-657: The two warring factions in the region. Vargas had a happy childhood thanks to the respect his mother received from the town due to her position between the two political factions. Vargas studied at a private primary school in São Borja run by Francisco Braga. He did not finish, however, for Vargas was sent to the Ouro Preto Preparatory School in Minas Gerais . The invitation was at the request of his brothers, and Vargas traveled by boat from Buenos Aires in Argentina, rushing as quickly as possible overland due to

45784-443: The uncultivated portions of large land-holdings were expropriated in return for compensation, and redistributed to poverty-stricken agricultural laborers. Approximately 500,000 people benefited from the decree. The majority of them were indigenous people, whose forebears had been dispossessed after the Spanish invasion . Árbenz's policies ran afoul of the United Fruit Company, which lost some of its uncultivated land. The company lobbied

46020-507: The unequal land distributions in Latin America they have helped many campesinos reclaim acres of land since 1989. The ongoing inequality of land distribution has led to a demand for land regulation. Citizens remain cautious about the nation's democracy and fearful of the return of dictatorship and corruption. The problem regarding land distribution has worsened recently due to the expansion of monoculture in specific, soy. Paraguay has become

46256-684: The use of two additional planes. Guatemala made an appeal to the United Nations, but the US vetoed an investigation into the incident by the Security Council , stating that it was an internal matter in Guatemala. On 25 June, a CIA plane bombed Guatemala City, destroying the government's main oil reserves. Frightened by this, Árbenz ordered the army to distribute weapons to local peasants and workers. The army refused to do this, instead demanding that Árbenz either resign or come to terms with Castillo Armas. Knowing that he could not fight on without

46492-525: The value of the Brazilian currency. It saw initial success before collapsing in the wake of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 . Vargas introduced a tax on consumption with the purpose of undermining the country's dependency on customs revenue. He would also hold audiences where up to a hundred people could submit their petitions, requests, and complaints, ranging from ordinary citizens to congressional deputies. Although Vargas only served two years as Finance Secretary before returning to Rio Grande do Sul to become

46728-419: The way back, Arana's convoy was intercepted by a small force led by Árbenz. A shootout ensued, killing three men, including Arana. Arana's supporters in the military rose up in revolt, but they were leaderless, and by the next day the rebels asked for negotiations. The coup attempt left approximately 150 dead and 200 wounded. Many of Arana's supporters, including Carlos Castillo Armas , were exiled. The details of

46964-440: The workplace, and standardized an eight-hour working day and a 45-hour working week, although the congress succumbed to pressure from the plantation lobby and exempted plantations from this provision. The code also required plantation owners to construct primary schools for the children of their workers, and expressed a general commitment to "dignifying" the position of workers. Although many of these provisions were never enforced,

47200-417: The world's consumption for three years. According to historians Boris and Sergio Fausto, "One of the more coherent aspects of the Vargas administration was its labor policy. Between 1930 and 1945, it passed through several stages, but from the beginning it appeared as innovative as far as what preceded it was concerned. Its main objectives were to repress efforts of the urban working class to organize outside

47436-411: The world's most glamorous and beautiful women. Heeren neither confirmed nor denied the rumor. Manuel gave Vargas some land near his own, and money to set up a home and legal practice in São Borja. The combination of a political and legal profession was common in Latin America. Vargas was now a conciliator and advisor, taking on many cases dealing with a social factor, an experience that can be considered

47672-459: The year of 1954, the Truth and Justice Committee focused on getting justice for the abuses many Campesinos were facing from their own government. After decades of controversy over government land policy, two agrarian laws were created in 1963. These laws were known as the Agrarian Statute, "limiting the maximum size of landholding to 10,000 hectares in Eastern Paraguay and 20,000 hectares in the Chaco ." However, these laws were rarely enforced. Under

47908-454: Was Adrián Recinos , whose campaign included a number of individuals identified with the Ubico regime. The ballots were tallied on 19 December 1944, and Arévalo won in a landslide, receiving more than four times as many ballots as the other candidates combined. Arévalo took office on 15 March 1945, inheriting a country with numerous social and economic issues. Despite Ubico's policy of using unpaid labor to build public roads, internal transport

48144-429: Was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 14th and 17th president of Brazil , from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 until his suicide in 1954. Due to his long and controversial tenure as Brazil's provisional, constitutional, dictatorial and democratic leader, he is considered by historians as the most influential Brazilian politician of the 20th century. Born on 19 April 1882 in São Borja , Rio Grande do Sul, to

48380-479: Was a major cause of the Mexican Revolution of 1910–20. A certain degree of land reform was introduced, albeit unevenly, as part of the Mexican Revolution. In 1934, president Lázaro Cárdenas passed the 1934 Agrarian Code and accelerated the pace of land reform. He helped redistribute 45,000,000 acres (180,000 km) of land, 4,000,000 acres (16,000 km) of which were expropriated from American owned agricultural property. This caused conflict between Mexico and

48616-443: Was a member of the doomed United Arab Republic (UAR). After the Ba'ath Party gained power in 1963 the reforms were resumed. The reforms were portrayed by the governing Ba'ath as politically motivated to benefit the rural property-less communities. According to Zaki al-Arsuzi , a co-founder of the Ba'ath Party, the reforms would "liberate 75 percent of the Syrian population and prepare them to be citizens qualified to participate in

48852-415: Was accompanied by a considerable increase in agricultural production. Ultimately the reform saw about 200,000 families receive transfers of land, largely in the early 1960s. In 2001, Hugo Chávez 's government enacted Plan Zamora to redistribute government and unused private land to campesinos in need. The plan met with heavy opposition which led to a coup attempt in 2002 . When Pedro Carmona took over

49088-399: Was allowed to leave the country safely, as was Ubico himself. The military junta was replaced by another three-person junta consisting of Árbenz, Arana, and an upper-class youth named Jorge Toriello , who had played a significant role in the protests. Although Arana had come to the military conspiracy relatively late, his defection had brought the powerful Guardia de Honor (Honor Guard) over to

49324-409: Was based on gratitude toward Medeiros for helping him become president and a political deal as part of the many cabinet positions divided amongst important states. Though the economy was prosperous from 1926 to 1928, it was entirely based upon coffee. Within a month, Vargas had submitted a money reform bill to the National Congress, similar to the French Poincaré , with the objective of stabilizing

49560-410: Was born in 1913 into a middle-class family of Swiss heritage. In 1935 he had graduated from the Escuela Politécnica, Guatemala's national military academy, with excellent grades, and had subsequently become an officer in the Guatemalan army under Ubico. As an officer, Árbenz himself had been required to escort chain-gangs of prisoners. This process had radicalized him, and he had begun to form links to

49796-400: Was cultivated for 15 years, it then became the property of the person who cultivated that land. From 1914 to 1943 there was an increase from 1 million to 4.25 million acres of land developed. Unfortunately, irrigation of the land was irresponsible, and many farmers didn't allow for drainage, which led to a buildup of salt and minerals in the land, killing its productivity. In 1958 the rise of

50032-438: Was described as having "lost his nerve". They were joined the next day by other factions of the army and the civilian population. Initially, the battle went against the revolutionaries, but after an appeal for support their ranks were swelled by unionists and students, and they eventually subdued the police and army factions loyal to Ponce Vaides. On October 20, the next day, Ponce Vaides surrendered unconditionally. Ponce Vaides

50268-497: Was elected. In December 1991, he amended Article 27 of the Constitution, making it legal to sell ejido land and allow peasants to put up their land as collateral for a loan. Francisco Madero and Emiliano Zapata were strongly identified with land reform, as are the present-day (as of 2006) Zapatista Army of National Liberation . Today, most Mexican peasants are landowners. However, their holdings are usually too small, and farmers must supplement their incomes by working for

50504-400: Was enforced less by the government and more by the good will of employers and officials in the remote regions of Brazil. Vargas's legislation did more for the industrial workers than for the more numerous agricultural workers, despite the fact that only relatively few industrial workers joined the unions that the government encouraged. The state-run social security system was inefficient and

50740-441: Was even a front in Vargas's home state of Rio Grande do Sul, pushing for a seven-point program, the instant restoration of individuals' rights, the guarantee of freedom of the press , and the election of a constituent assembly . At this point, some foreign diplomats had much doubt Vargas had any control of events, observing the division between revolutionary leaders and unrest in the country. The painful transition between regimes

50976-427: Was extremely unpopular in the state, becoming the subject of hostility by politicians and the press despite his best efforts to appease them. He was forced to resign in July 1931 after a minor rebellion in April of that year, and three separate interventors succeeded him until mid-1932, including a civilian interventor Vargas appointed in March. The state believed Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul would join them and

51212-469: Was faced with a major problem: Large stocks of coffee had no demand on the international market. In July 1931, the government, using the money it received via export taxes and exchange taxes, would purchase excess coffee and destroy some of it. Doing such, the price of coffee would be sustained and the supply would be reduced. The plan lasted many years, only ending in 1944. By that point, Vargas's government had destroyed 78,200,000 sacks of coffee, equivalent to

51448-512: Was his agrarian reform bill. Árbenz drafted the bill himself with the help of advisers that included some leaders of the communist party as well as non-communist economists. He also sought advice from numerous economists from across Latin America. The bill was passed by the National Assembly on 17 June 1952, and the program went into effect immediately. The focus of the program was on transferring uncultivated land from large landowners to their poverty stricken laborers, who would then be able to begin

51684-412: Was immensely favorable to the company. It included a 99-year lease to massive tracts of land, exemptions from virtually all taxes, and a guarantee that no other company would receive any competing contract. Under Ubico, the company paid virtually no taxes, which hurt the Guatemalan government's ability to deal with the effects of the Great Depression. Ubico asked the company to pay its workers only 50 cents

51920-408: Was involved in a motoring accident which left him seriously injured. Fearing a military coup, the leaders of the Revolutionary Action Party (PAR) made a pact with Arana, in which the party agreed to support his candidacy in the 1950 elections in return for a promise to refrain from a coup. Arana's support began to be solicited by the landed elite, who felt threatened by Arévalo's reforms. Arana, who

52156-454: Was most evident in the 1932 Constitutionalist Revolution , a three-month long civil war in Brazil (9 July–2 October 1932) which pitted São Paulo, now suffering as their interests and pride were lost, against the federal government in the name of a free constitution. Furthermore, the state of São Paulo was distressed with Vargas's implementation of interventors to replace state presidents. São Paulo's interventor, João Alberto Lins de Barros ,

52392-421: Was named the Rio Grande do Sul state attorney general by his party. While it was very apparent that Vargas received the position due to his political connections, he remained as state attorney until 1908. Vargas would gain valuable experience as state attorney, and, after building himself a reputation for loyalty and brightness, was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Rio Grande do Sul in 1909. Though he

52628-476: Was not initially inclined to get involved with politics, began to make occasional statements against the government. In the 1948 parliamentary election , he backed a number of opposition candidates, all of whom were defeated. By 1949 the National Renovation Party and the PAR were both openly hostile to Arana, while a small fragment of the Popular Liberation Front split off to support him. The leftist parties decided to back Árbenz instead, as they believed that only

52864-414: Was one of fourteen children, an honored military general for his service in the Paraguayan War , and a local Riograndense Republican Party leader. Manuel's family had a background in Azores and São Paulo. During the Federalist Revolution , Cândida's side of the family became maragatos , or federalists, while Manuel's side fought on the chimango , or republican, side. Their marriage brought together

53100-402: Was one of the most progressive in Latin America. It mandated suffrage for all but illiterate women, a decentralization of power, and provisions for a multiparty system. Communist parties were, however, forbidden. The constitution and Arévalo's socialist ideology became the basis for much of the reform enacted under Arévalo and (later) Jacobo Árbenz. Although the US government would later portray

53336-507: Was only in his twenties, he still managed to make himself known for the ability to temporize and became well-liked. However, the Legislative Assembly only convened for two months in a year and pay was allotted, meaning that Vargas needed to find other income sources. This was partially because of the downgraded importance of state legislators in Rio Grande do Sul in sharp contrast to other states. Believing São Borja could not support more than one advocate's office, Vargas began his legal career as

53572-624: Was organized by local committees that included representatives from the landowners, the laborers, and the government. Of the nearly 350,000 private land-holdings, only 1710 were affected by expropriation. The law itself was cast in a moderate capitalist framework; however, it was implemented with great speed, which resulted in occasional arbitrary land seizures. There was also some violence, directed at land-owners, as well as at peasants that had minor landholdings of their own. By June 1954, 1.4 million acres of land had been expropriated and distributed. Approximately 500,000 individuals, or one-sixth of

53808-399: Was president of Guatemala from 1898 to 1920, permitted limited unionization in rural Guatemala, but also made further concessions to the UFC. In 1922, the Communist Party of Guatemala was created, and became a significant influence among urban laborers; however, it had little reach among the rural and Indian populations. In 1929, the Great Depression led to the collapse of the economy and

54044-425: Was quickly followed by endorsements from most parties on the left, including the influential PAR, as well as from labor unions. Árbenz had only a couple of significant challengers in the election, in a field of ten candidates. One of these was Jorge García Granados , who was supported by some members of the upper-middle class who felt the revolution had gone too far. Another was Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes , who had been

54280-496: Was severely inadequate. 70% of the population was illiterate, and malnutrition and poor health were widespread. The wealthiest 2% of landowners owned nearly three quarters of agricultural land, and as a result less than 1% was cultivated. The indigenous peasants either had no land, or had far too little to sustain themselves. Three quarters of the labor force were in agriculture, and industry was essentially nonexistent. Arévalo identified his ideology as " spiritual socialism ". He held

54516-444: Was the Agrarian Reform Law of 1970. Between 1970 and 1982, 264,400 farmers received grants of land. However, these reforms did not contribute to an improvement in the production of agricultural goods, leading the regime to increase its imports of food products. As elsewhere in North Africa, lands formerly held by European farmers have been taken over. The nationalisation of agricultural land in Algeria , Morocco and Tunisia led to

54752-541: Was the daughter of Antonio Sarmanho, a merchant, farmer, and one of Manuel's closest friends, and was orphaned at age fourteen. According to historian Robert M. Levine , Darci stayed in the background for most of Vargas's life and looked after the family's households. She also devoted herself to public charity causes later in their lives when Vargas would become president. They had five children together: Lutero , Jandira, Alzira, Manuel (also known as Maneco), and Getúlio (also known as Getulinho). Alzira would go on to become

54988-447: Was the only candidate, winning the election with 99% of the vote. Among the outcomes of the meeting in El Salvador was a planned new constitution, which would roll back most of the progressive reform brought by the revolution. Following the coup, hundreds of peasant leaders were rounded up and executed. Historian Greg Grandin has stated that "There is general consensus today among academics and Guatemalan intellectuals that 1954 signaled

55224-406: Was to create tremendous resentment against him among agricultural laborers. Ubico was highly contemptuous of the country's indigenous people, once stating that they resembled donkeys. Ubico had great admiration for the fascist leaders of Europe, such as Francisco Franco and Benito Mussolini . However, he saw the United States as an ally against the supposed communist threat of Mexico. He made

55460-612: Was to expropriate all surplus land and pay compensation. To prevent the proliferation of small, uneconomic holdings, priority for redistributed lands was to be given to neighboring farmers with two hectares or less. Landless sharecroppers, laborers, tenants, and nomads had next priority. Despite the government's rhetorical commitment to land reform, the program was quickly postponed. Because the government's landholding limits applied to families, not individuals, wealthy families avoided expropriation by dividing their lands nominally between family members. The high ceilings for landholdings restricted

55696-407: Was toppled in a military coup led by Jacobo Árbenz in October 1944, an event also known as the "October Revolution". The coup leaders formed a junta which swiftly called for open elections. These elections were won in a landslide by Juan José Arévalo , a progressive professor of philosophy who had become the face of the popular movement. He implemented a moderate program of social reform, including

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